Howick and Pakuranga Times : Howick and Pakuranga Times Thursday October 24

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Howick and Pakuranga Times, Thursday, October 24, 2013 --- 5
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MORE than 700 new homes
will be built in the East Auck-
land area under the Auckland
Housing Accord.
Housing Minister Nick Smith and
Auckland Mayor Len Brown made the
announcement recently, and, overall,
there will be 6000 new homes in 10
Special Housing Areas across the
region, including 723 homes in East
Tamaki and Flat Bush.
The sections being made available
for homes are additional to the 282
houses at Weymouth announced ear-
lier this month.
“This announcement gives much
needed momentum to the construc-
tion sector in Auckland,” says a
delighted Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross.
“More homes have got to be built
to ease the strain on supply. These
10 Special Housing Areas are a step
towards getting 39,000 new homes
consented over the next three
years.”
A proportion of the completed
homes will be required to be within a
more affordable price range.
The proportion will be fnalised
with the processing of qualifying
developments.
“These Special Housing Areas have
been recommended by the Auckland
Council and provisionally approved
by Cabinet,” says Mr Ross.
“It’s expected they will take legal
effect by the end of this month. After
that, applications for subdivisions
will be considered by the council,
much faster than they previously
would have been.
“New legislation requires that they
be approved within six months if
they are low-rise greenfeld develop-
ments, instead of the previous three
years,” he says.
“Brownfeld developments will
be consented within three months.
Before, developers had to wait a year
before they could get on with the
build.”
Legislation was enacted in Sep-
tember and this month to enable the
swift process.
“It means there will be less muck-
ing around and more building,
making more homes available for
families,” says Mr Ross.
“Our corner of Auckland has
already seen a huge amount of devel-
opment in the past decade, but has
plenty of room for more.
“The coming Ormiston Town Cen-
tre and excellent local schools makes
it an even more desirable place to
live.
“It’s imperative we get on with
releasing more land for building
on, so the supply of housing can be
increased and the market can be
cooled,” he says.
“Data has come out to suggest
housing in Auckland is less afford-
able than in big cities such as Dublin
and Glasgow.”
The Government is also stream-
lining council consent processes,
improving regional decision mak-
ing and examining how the produc-
tivity and costs of building can be
improved.
“The Government is taking a real
wraparound approach because we
consider the issue of housing afford-
ability to be a high priority,” says Mr
Ross.
Dr Smith says land supply is the
most critical issue to improving
housing availability and affordability
in Auckland.
“This frst batch of Special Hous-
ing Areas will bring 6000 sections
on to the market and is a signifcant
step towards the Auckland Hous-
ing Accord’s target of consenting for
39,000 new homes over three years.”
The East Auckland locations for
the Special Housing Areas are:
Alexander Crescent, East Tamaki,
■
148 homes, 8.1 hectares.
Murphys Road, Flat Bush, 275
■
homes, 37.8 hectares.
Flat Bush School Road, Flat Bush,
■
300 homes, 7 hectares.
“There’ll be requirements across
the Special Housing Areas for a pro-
portion of the completed homes to be
in the more affordable range,” says
Dr Smith.
“This will vary from 100 per cent
in some areas such as Weymouth to a
smaller proportion in others.
“The details of these requirements
will be resolved with the processing
of qualifying developments, as pro-
vided for under the Auckland Hous-
ing Accord.”
Mr Brown says the frst Special
Housing Areas will help boost the
building of affordable homes.
“This is the frst step in a partner-
ship with the Government that will
deliver more affordable homes across
Auckland in the next three years.
“We’ll be setting affordability cri-
teria of up to 10 per cent minimum
for each of the SHAs. I’m actively
encouraging developers to deliver
even more than that where possible.
“The Housing Accord can’t and
won’t solve Auckland’s housing sup-
ply problem. That needs to come from
a range of factors, including mon-
etary policy and market conditions.
“But it provides an opportunity to
bring forward projects that may have
otherwise sat on the backburner, and
in particular, to secure more afford-
able homes for Auckland families,”
says Mr Brown.
Flat Bush will become one of the first areas in Auckland to get accelerated housing developments,
reports DAVID MCPHERSON.
Sections opened up for building
PROPERTY DEVELOPMENTS: A construction area just east of a Special Housing Area announced this month for Flat Bush
School Road.
Times photo David McPherson